Access to products

Focus on

MyOcean2 GOT OFF TO A GOOD START !

March 2012

On March 31st 2012, the MyOcean project gave way to MyOcean2. The European Ocean Monitoring Service has just entered its pre-operational phase. From March 27th to 29th, a dedicated event for the MyOcean Closure and MyOcean2 Kick-Off took place in Brussels.

The aim of the MyOcean project, jointly funded by the European Commission and the Member States is to pool the resources of the various European ocean forecasting centres in order to create a GMES European Ocean Monitoring service by 2014.

From the Marine Core Service Workshop to a GMES Marine Service : almost 10 years of engagements and intensive work. MyOcean2 is the ultimate step before ECOMF (European Centre for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting)

On April 1st, 2012 MyOcean2 has taken over for the final stage of transition to this long-term operational service. A dedicated event was organised in Brussels from March 27th to 29th for the MyOcean Closure and MyOcean2 Kick-Off.

160 attendees to the MyOcean Closure-MyOcean2 Kick-off Event

The MyOcean operation, which was undertaken in 2009, came to an end on 31 March 2012 but without any break in service, as continuity will be ensured by the MyOcean2 project with a 2-year mandate from the European Commission. MyOcean2 will be offering a more comprehensive and responsive service to more users (for Maritime Safety, Marine Resources, Coastal and Marine Environment, Weather, Climate and Seasonal Forecasting) in preparation for the future European GMES ocean monitoring service to be commissioned by the end of 2014. This service will be provided by ECOMF (the European Centre for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting).

Over the last 3 years, MyOcean has successfully demonstrated this unique European capability by integrating 46 separate systems in a single one with common standards and by offering a free service to more than 1000 users (European and national agencies, operational centres, institutes, laboratories and private companies). For instance, EMSA (the European Maritime Safety Agency) and EEA (the European Environment Agency) are able to rely each day on the consortium's products. Users enjoy free access through a single web portal to a catalogue which already lists more than 250 regularly-updated oceanography products. These can be downloaded at any time and cover 7 regions of the planet (the Arctic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and the global ocean).

MyOcean has been officially closed and MyOcean2 officially launched through several events between March 27th and 29th, located in the Académie Royale des Sciences and then at the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, involving more than 160 people and 25 countries of the consortium as well as executives of the European Commission.

Dr Reinhard Schulte-Braucks (European Commission - DG Enterprise and Industry, Head of Space Research and Development) participated to the Event and presented the "future of Space under Horizon 2020 ". "Space is no longer an exotic field dedicated to science, but is rapidly becoming central to our economy and society. Space is one of the fastest growing economic sectors." Dr Schulte-Braucks said. "This is in no small part thanks to the developments in the FP7 GMES services projects, such as MyOcean" he added.

Birgit Blasch (European Commission - Research Executive Agency, Deputy Head of Unit and MyOcean project Officer for almost 2 years) introduced REA activities during the very first Event's day, on behalf of Christine Bernot , REA Head of Unit.

Day2 and Day 3 were then the moment to take stock of actions during the last MyOcean contract period ( Avril 2011/March2012): Each of the 18 MyOcean Work-packages has presented both achievements and lessons learned. Having carefully listened, EC's reviewers were able to provide the assembly with a preliminary and short feedback before the submission of the MyOcean Final report. "No doubt that you have succeeded" they said while renewing their confidence in MyOcean2 engagements for the next 30month to come.

A poster session took place during the event gathering more than 20 topics (such as :" Implementation and Verification of NEMO for the Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Centre" ,"Sensitivity of a North-East Atlantic ocean model to the wave-induced momentum fluxes","Exploring the potential for probabilistic forecasting in MyOcean"...). Posters will be shortly posted on MyOcean website ( Scientific publications).

Frédéric Adragna, MyOcean project Manager (appointed by the French Space Agency to a mission in Kourou, French Guyana) is replaced by Joël DORANDEU who becomes MyOcean2 project Manager. Joël was in charge of all Central Engineering activities in MyOcean (MyOCean Information System and Webportal).

MyOcean2 counts 59 partners out of 28 countries. This represents a pool of more than 350 experts and scientists from the Marine domain actively working for a collaborative objective and a unique marine service ever.

As stated by Birgit Blasch, " MyOcean did a lot and still MyOcean2 has a lot to achieve". From Day one, the MyOcean2 team is built , the MyOcean spirit is preserved, MyOcean users are delivered and the new Roadmap ready !

Dr Reinhard SCHULTE-BRAUCKS, EC DG Enterprise and Industry, Head of Unit Space Research and Development, initiated the first MyOcean meeting on March 27th (Académie Royale des Sciences, Brussels)